First Look, First Pictures of Harry Potter Site 'Pottermore'

The first of the first million people selected for the Harry Potter fan site "Pottermore" were ushered through the site's virtual doors on Monday evening, bringing back tales of the site's magical environs.

The first of the first million people selected for the Harry Potter fan site "Pottermore" were ushered through the site's virtual doors on Monday evening, bringing back tales of the site's magical environs.

Early impressions seem to be that the site will delve deep into the trivia of J K Rowling's Potter psyche, leaving users free to wander about, sharing details and behind-the-scenes looks at the seven books.

Pottermore raised a bit of a ruckus in June when it was revealed that Rowling, who owns the electronic rights to all of her books herself, would sell e-book versions of the Potter novels exclusively online. But, for fans, the real news was the creation of the Pottermore site itself, which seems to mix in mild gaming and roleplaying aspects with a social component.

The site will be free to join when it officially launches in October, but the real cachet is for those who got in early. Fortunately, that included several members of the media, who were able to test the site out before it goes live. That experience is a bit like a massively-multiplayer online game, populated by just a few: the experience requires others to make it memorable.

Some of the most detailed first impressions were left by Bryan Young at the Huffington Post, who described Pottermore like this:

"Pottermore truly is an exploration into the world of Harry Potter," Young wrote. "Each chapter of each book has been rendered into Flash-based paintings that can be explored, zoomed into, and clicked on. Navigation bars above, below, and to the side lets you know what you can read about and explore and move through, taking you to pages and pages of backstory, behind the scenes information, and expanded encyclopedia-like entries of just about anything you could think of.

"It's also something of a scavenger hunt," Young added. "You must collect items ranging from Harry's alarm clock to the cupboard under the stairs to a vial of unicorn blood. Along the way you collect chocolate frog cards of various wizards through history, and books filled with spells and knowledge of the wizarding world."

Users are, naturally, assigned to one of the four Houses of Hogwarts, via a series of questions written by Rowling herself. Users are then assigned a wand, and can begin exploring.

Social aspects include the ability to befriend others, via Facebook, trade virtual loot, and even brew potions with ingredients collected and found across the site.

"The more you explore Pottermore, the more messages you'll receive, from friend requests to updates about potions you are brewing," the site reads.

And Pottermore hasn't left the first book yet.

"Even though the site is currently limited to material relating to the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, there's still more than enough to make your entire afternoon disappear like a temporus suckus spell," EW wrote, and users will be treated to new storylines written by Rowling herself.

It's hard to say how long the Pottermore content will be drawn out; as EverQuest and World of Warcraft veterans know, entire teams can be required to keep fans interested. But the bottom line is that the format apparently works.

"It's a sort of interactive York Notes, should the Potter books ever find themselves on the syllabus and one can't help wondering how it would be to navigate, say, The Waste Land in this format, with T S Eliot's spidery notes laid alongside a barren landscape of stony rubbish and red rock," The Independentgrumped.

Editor's Note: This story has been clarified to note that only a fraction of the first million people have been allowed into the Pottermore beta.

Mark Hachman Mark joined ExtremeTech in 2001 as the news editor, after rival CMP/United Media decided at the time that online news did not make sense in the new millennium.
Mark stumbled into his career after discovering that writing the great American novel did not pay a monthly salary, and that his other possible career choice, physics, required a degree of mathematical prowess that he sorely lacked.
Mark talked his way into a freelance assignment at CMP’s Electronic Buyers’ News, in 1995, where he wrote the...
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